Category archives for Asylum Seekers

Labor needs a Tampa moment to win the election. Remember when John Howard turned around his campaign with the Tampa crisis? I hope Bill Shorten has one up his sleeve. If not, here are some ideas. The Medicare scare campaign shows that Labor has learned a lot about campaigning from previous elections. Medicare sucked the life […]

An interesting question was posed to me a few months back. “If all men are created equal, are borders moral?” If we are all equal regardless of race, ethnicity, sex, religion etc. why should we have countries? Why should only my ‘tribe’ inhabit a piece of land defined by lines on a map? I confess, I […]

You would think that everything that could be said, had been said about the refugee influx into Europe. I think there are a few topics that are new, or glossed over, so here we go. These are seven refugee issues we have ignored. Firstly, one raised by Gillian Triggs. If we are taking Syrian refugees, […]

By all accounts Bennelong was a decent sort of person. He became a link between black and white Australia in the early days of settlement. A recently discovered secret journal sheds new light on his early days and some issues he had with the first fleet under Governor Phillip. It seems in those days the […]

And the Chief Abbott spoke words of wisdom to the assembled masses. “It will come to pass that Scott, the son of a Morris Dancer, will be appointed custodian of the Australian social conscience.” Not since the appointment of Cardinal George ‘for whom the Pell tolls’ to be God’s banker had such an […]

So what does Tony Abbott stand for? What are the principles that guide his government? The best way to understand the Abbott government principles is to look at what he has said and done. Here are a few of the self evident principles that guide the Liberal government. Principles regarding the Australian Voters Principle 1. Truth is […]

It is a bit like a spy novel. Nothing is what it seems. We are promised no surprises. We naively expect no surprises. What we didn’t see coming is that if you have no information, you cannot be surprised. No broken promises, just a different path to the same end. Turn back the boats seemed […]

I feel sorry for him. Who you might ask? Scott, the son of a Morris Dancer. The media make his life hell. If he talks to them they misrepresent all the good things he is doing. If he says he will only talk to them once a week, they complain even more. Avoid questions and […]

Since Leigh Sales will not ask the questions below, I have to imagine what would happen if Scott Morrison were interviewed about stopping the boats. Interviewer: With your plan to stop the boats, what percentage would you expect to stop? Scott Morrison: I can’t tell you for operational reasons. Interviewer: So it is a secret? […]

It is hard to believe there has been so much energy expended on this topic. The approach should be relatively straight forward. It comes down to two questions. How many refugees do we take each year? How do we select those people? Many people talk about asylum seekers arriving by boat, and what happens to […]